The Wellbriety Movement Blog

White Bison was founded in
1988. Ten years later, the Wellbriety Movement was introduced to Indian
Country. White Bison made 5 journeys across the United States, bringing
awareness to our communities about being in a time of healing. We started
with a program called the Medicine Wheel and 12 Steps for Men and Women.
Over the years, we continued to develop more culturally based trainings that we
delivered to communities, which addressed healing for youth, parents, families
and others seeking sobriety. The Wellbriety Training Institute was established
20 years later. As we began to expand our programs throughout the U.S.
and Canada, our training team grew to include several elite trainers to meet
the growing demand for Wellbriety programs. In 2017 alone, we trained
1,148 facilitators.

As we move into a new season in
2018, we are designing a vision for more innovative approaches for enhancing
healing and the recovery movement.

1.We are expanding the training to include the Medicine Wheel
and 12 Steps for the Deaf. The first training will be scheduled for early Fall
2018.

2.We are piloting a Medicine Wheel and 12 Steps
Program for Native Veterans in prison.

3.We have a grant that will focus on Survivors of Homicide
Victims in Native Communities.

4.We will announce a suicide prevention program called "No
More Fallen Feathers".

5.We will be hosting a series of educational webinars, which
include Wellbriety programs and cultural teachings.

6.We have expanded our Board of Directors to include members
from Canada.

7.We have expanded our Council of Elders to include Elders
from Canada.

8.We are translating the Elders Meditation book into Spanish.

9.The meditation app is now available for free download on
Android and iPhone. You can find it in your app store by typing in
"White Bison Elders Daily Meditations."

12.We have provided a space on the website to collect "Red
Papers", which are research articles written on Native teachings and
cultural approaches.

13.We
are evaluating the possibility of an Annual Wellbriety Addictions School
bringing together science and Cultural approaches.

14.We
are working with a law firm on establishing a Wellbriety Movement Foundation
that will focus on Social Injustice in our Native Communities. This will be
ready around May-June time frame. We will begin implementing various efforts
all around “Taking a Stand.” This means we will no longer sit and silently
witness social injustices but will take action.

15.We
will launch a campaign to increase Native votes and encourage our people to run
for office

2018 is the time the Wellbriety
Movement will advance to its next cycle of growth. White Bison will continue to
deliver training and technical assistance to communities. We must
mobilize all our resources, cultural knowledge, programs, skills, insights,
ceremony and prayers, uniting across tribes in urban and rural communities in
ways we have never done before. We must use the tech­nology and all resources
at our disposal. We must create our own cultural logic models, describe
cultural congruency, and certify culturally based promising practices to keep
advancing the movement. We must include our children and make them part of this
change. We are at a point where the Wellbriety Movement is spreading and we
will now notice with our eyes and our minds that we are in a time of Healing.

Recently,
White Bison had the privilege to attend a networking meeting in Washington,
D.C. held by the Office for Victims of Crime, Training and Technical Assistance
Center (OVC TTAC) https://www.ovcttac.gov/. We were invited as
part of the grant award that White Bison received, to develop the Survivors of Homicide training
program.

While
there, we were able to connect with fellow non-profit organizations that are
carrying out remarkable work in their field.
All of the organizations in attendance were recipients of a grant award for
projects within the Office for Victims of Crime, and several also represent
Native American/Alaska Native communities.
The meeting was a great opportunity to begin collaborating with comparable programs. We were able to make several valuable connections
and hope to exchange resources to strengthen our program.

Many staff
members from the OVC TTAC attended, which proved very beneficial. In the course of several breakout sessions,
we were able to connect directly with the staff to ask questions, brain-storm
ideas, and get an overall sense of how OVC TTAC grant projects are coordinated. These sessions provided an opportunity for
open discussions between the staff and organization providers on common items
of interest dealing with grant projects.

Opportunities
such as these are so valuable for White Bison to not only expand our resources,
but to create a stronger awareness for the issues in Native
communities. Stay tuned for further
updates as we continue to work on our program development!

Each year Native American, individuals and families seek
access to Substance Abuse Residential Treatment for alcohol, drugs, gambling
and other addictions in both rural and urban areas. Currently, there are very
few Native American specific programs available for treatment, with the
exception of a couple well-known culturally specific programs out west. On a
weekly basis we receive phone calls from individuals and families hoping to
enter the “White Bison residential treatment program”. At this time, White Bison does not offer inpatient
treatment services.

After discussing with our team how we can help as a
Wellbriety Movement to meet the needs of our supporters, we came up with Wellbriety
Certified Treatment Centers (WCTC). Tribes, individuals and families
are seeking the Red Road to Wellbriety treatment approach! We have reached out nationally
to partner with culturally specific and non-Native inpatient treatment services
that provide beds to tribal people. We have developed a process to certify
treatment centers with the Wellbriety Approach. What we have witnessed is that
programs that have incorporated the Red Road to Wellbriety approach, have had
an increase of referrals due to the collaboration between White Bison and
residential programs. Here are our current WCTC to access if you are in need of
inpatient treatment: Volunteers of America in Sheridan,
Wyoming, New Directions for Women in
Costa Mesa, California, Native American
Rehabilitation Association in Portland, Organ and Northern Cheyenne Treatment Center in Lame Deer, Montana.

As Tribes move towards building sustainable inpatient
treatment services, we hope that you will join White Bison in our initiative to
provide Native American Culturally Specific Treatment to Native individuals.
You and your organization can help us by becoming a Wellbriety Certified
Treatment Center today!

For more information see the attached criteria or feel free to
contact White Bison by calling 877-871-1495, or emailing,- info@whitebison.org!

The Wellbriety Movement is continuously
striving to extend help and healing to as many Native communities as possible. We are always looking for ways to implement
outlets for healing for Native Americans suffering from social, economic, and
personal difficulties. Recently, White
Bison Inc. received a grant through the Office for Victims of Crime with the
Department of Justice to implement a new training program that we will be
bringing to nine cities in 2018.

Our program is known as “Self-Help Circles for American Indian and
Alaska Native Survivors of Homicide: A Wellbriety Approach.” Participants will learn the impact of grief
and loss in AI/AN communities and the need for healing. They’ll learn how to implement and market
community based self-help circles to offer aid to other community members in
the grieving process using culturally appropriate practices. They’ll also learn how historical trauma
creates complexities within the grieving process today.

Homicide rates in AI/AN communities
are twice as high s those in the general population. Homicide is the third leading cause of death
for AI/AN youth (age 15-24) and the second leading cause of death of AI/AN
adults. It is the number one cause of
death among AI/AN males. (Heron 2013)
These statistics are alarming and it is White Bison’s goal to address
this widespread issue and teach community members how to begin healing from
these losses.

This two-day
comprehensive training program was designed to incorporate culturally relevant
themes and strategies for implementing and facilitating self-help circles for
American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals, families, and
communities who have lost friends and family members due to homicide.